Me and Julie Murphy at Books of Wonder, where she signed my brand new copy of SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY!

In even more reason to do these monthly check-ins probably no one cares about me, I’m participating in the YA Buccaneers’ spring boot camp. (Shout out to the League of Antagonists!) Which means more accountability, more people who have to berate me if I fail to progress, and just generally more being neurotic. OH THE GLORY. And now, yet another update of my 2014 goals/resolutions! (Also, because I got to meet a lot of fun people this month, enjoy some fun March pictures!)

1. Read 5 MGs – Ummmm…still zero. But I bought another one, which should count for something! Since I wasn’t able to make it to either of Laura Marx Fitzgerald’s events celebrating the release of her MG debut, UNDER THE EGG, I nabbed myself a lovely little autographed copy from Books of Wonder at the mega-signing on March 23, and I’m excited to read it…eventually!

2. Read 20 Non-Contemp YAs – Adding two more to the list, compliments of the OneFours! Both LIV, FOREVER by Amy Talkington and THE VIOLET HOUR by Whitney Miller were hella creepy and haunting, with the former being in a more lovely, spooky, heartbreaking way and the latter being in a more active, fast-paced, gory sort of way. So, fun month for cool spec-fic! Also bought a couple more at the BoW signing (thanks, in part, to Gaby being awesome at her job) – THE WINNER’S CURSE by Marie Rutkowski and SCARLET by A.C. Gaughen.

4. Read 115 Other Books – Steadily going! Currently up to 31 for the year. My most recent read was SOMETHING REAL by Heather Demetrios, which I adored, and presumably I’ll finish Steve Brezenoff’s GUY IN REAL LIFE by the end of the day, and highly rec that too.

5. Finish my Follow-Up to BEHIND THE SCENES – DONE DONE-ITY DONE DONE. The first draft of UNDER THE LIGHTS went to my lovely editor, Patricia Riley, on Wednesday night, March 26! Thanks to everyone who celebrated with me 😉

6. Finish drafting LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT – Now that UNDER THE LIGHTS is done, this is my next writing goal, and I’m aiming to have it completed before I go on my first vacation in I don’t even know how long, so, official target date is by April 13!

8. Write at least three posts pimping QUILTBAG (QUeer/QUestioning Intersex Lesbian Transgender Bisexual Asexual Gay) titles – Nothing new yet, as I’m waiting for some more new titles to release before I write something new for B&N, but I will point out in this one that FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe and THE SUMMER I WASN’T ME by Jessica Verdi both release in April, and you should buy them!

9. Blog more about New Adult, specifically expanding upon the things I talk about here – A little roundabout, but this month I featured a couple of my favorite New Adult authors. Make sure you check out my interview with THE WICKED WE HAVE DONE author Sarah Harian (which does discuss some of that), and the cover reveal for UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder!

10. Interview another one of my all-time favorite YA writers – Haven’t done this, but next month I’ll have a guest post from a YA author I’m excited about! Meanwhile, I’m doing lots of other interviews with great people for my brand-new Dialogues with Dahlia series. Currently looking for publicists, librarians, and booksellers, so if you’re one of those and up for a chat, lemme know!

Also, at this point, it’d be pretty impossible for me not to hit 100K pageviews today, so THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported this blog, whether by reading it, commenting on it, being interviewed for it, sharing links, and God only knows what else. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

As a little token of my appreciation, I’m giving away a few things to celebrate:

1. An e-copy of UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder, because duh, if you’ve read this blog, like, ever

3. A paperback copy of THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour, because I love it and once bought an extra copy just because

4. A copy of SEKRET by Lindsay Smith, because my accountabilibuddy has to deal with a whole lot more status updates from me than just these once-monthlies, and her debut, which releases tomorrow, kicks serious ass

5. A collection of swag from a whole bunch of books, mostly because I have a ton and it’s getting wasted on me. And yes, there’ll be swag for BEHIND THE SCENES in there too 🙂

Ummm, I’m not big on Rafflecopter, but you should probably be following this blog or following me on Twitter or something if you’re gonna enter. And by enter, I mean leave a comment with something about your March, and/or something/anything relating to my blog/how awesome I am, and what prize(s) you’d theoretically like to be entered in for. Giveaway ends Friday, April 4, at noon EST!

Yes, I’m keeping up with my monthly check-ins, even if they’re boring, because two months into 2014 and I’m still finding “Accountability” to be the word of my year. So, without further ado, onward on the update of my 2014 goals/resolutions!

1. Read 5 MGs – Uhhhh still not yet. Though I did just buy one of the ones on my list! The awesome Rebecca Behrens had a fantastic launch party for her debut, WHEN AUDREY MET ALICE, and I got my very own signed copy. I also got to see Rebecca read from it, and hang out with Lindsay Ribar, Heidi Schulz, Adam Silvera, Brooks Sherman, Alison Cherry, Emery Lord, Michelle Schusterman, Kim Liggett, Lauren Magaziner, Laura Marx Fitzgerald, and Adriana Brad Schanen. So, uh, having a pretty freaking good MG experience so far!

2. Read 20 Non-Contemp YAs – Got to cross two more off my list: HEXED by Michelle Krys had such a fun voice, perfect for a contemp fiend like me, and TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson was such an intriguing read, and a cool take on the Peter Pan story. So, together with THE FOURTH WISH and GRACELING, I’m up to four. Not bad! (Also, NA should totally count here – I just read THE WICKED WE HAVE DONE by Sarah Harian, and it kicked serious ass.)

4. Read 115 Other Books – I’m up to 27 for the year (as seen here), so, minus the four non-contemp YAs, I’m at 21/115. Not bad!

5. Finish my Follow-Up to BEHIND THE SCENES – Working on it! And I’m getting closer, thanks to the awesomeness of my CPs Marieke Nijkamp, Gina Ciocca, and especially Maggie Hall, who’s talked this book to death with me. Also major thanks to my accountabilibuddy, Lindsay Smith, for shaming me into writing even when I’m not feeling it. It may look like my word count hasn’t really been going anywhere, and in fact has dropped considerably (especially given I won NaNo with this thing!) but crazy amounts of rewriting, POV-stripping, and storyline revising have gone into this thing already, and all that’s left now is straight-up drafting. Trust me, that’s huge.

In case you’re curious about how it’s shaping up, here are a couple of random lines I’ve tweeted:

(Oh and the line’s: “Jesus, Shannah, you’re like a walking STD—we fucked and now I can’t get rid of you.” Sorry. You asked.) #amwriting#UtL

6. Finish drafting LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT – Ah, the manuscript I keep sneaking just a little more in to when I’m not supposed to. I only foresee it getting another 5K or so before the first draft is done, which is…eep. Major eep. God, I love this book for no other reason than it’s six kinds of depraved.

So, even though I have blog posts coming up every day for the next two weeks that are all about books I loved tremendously from the past year, obviously when I saw this post on Kari Bradley’s blog as part of Jamie/the Perpetual Page Turner’s bloghop, I got all jealous and had to do one myself. So, voila!

(As per Jamie, The survey is for books you read throughout the year, no matter when they were published, and is not limited to just books that came out in 2013!!)

BEST BOOKS IN 2013

I’m gonna take a page from Jamie at the Perpetual Page Turner’s post and do my fave per genre, because picking just one is not gonna happen:

CODE NAME VERITY. I so badly wanted to feel everyone else’s love for it, especially since I love histfic and a good friendship book, but alas, it just wasn’t for me at all. The other big one was ROOMIES, which is by two of my favorite authors and has a great premise but again, just didn’t click with me. Subjectivity FTW!

MOST SURPRISING (IN A GOOD WAY!) BOOK OF 2013

THE ART OF WISHING by Lindsay Ribar. I am so, so not a Paranormal reader, and I was on the fence about buying it to start with, but did so because I was at a huge signing where she was one of the authors, and a mutual friend there convinced me it was definitely worth reading. Fast forward to my loving it so much that I refused to put it down even when I was making both me and my husband late. Whatever. Worth it.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU RECOMMENDED TO PEOPLE MOST IN 2013?

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder, no question. It’s definitely not most people’s usual read, and I love how many people trusted my recommendation enough to step outside their comfort zones. I don’t think a single person who read it was sorry they did!

BEST SERIES YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

The DIVERGENT trilogy by Veronica Roth. Being that I’m not a big non-contemp reader, it took me a while to pick this one up. But I finally did, and am definitely glad for it!

FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

Tough call. I read a lot of great authors for the first time in 2013, but since I read two solid books by Trish Doller for the first time this year, one of which was a five-star for me, I’ll have to go with her.

BEST BOOK THAT WAS OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE OR A NEW GENRE FOR YOU

Given that I copy edit erotica for a living, my “comfort zone” is a little different than other people’s 😉 So, I’m gonna go in the opposite direction from most and say ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman, which was, in fact, the first MG I’ve read as an adult, and is super freaking cute and felt delightfully foodie in a way that didn’t feel downplayed for a young audience.

MOST THRILLING, UNPUTDOWNABLE BOOK OF 2013

DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas. But, I do want to give a nod to some other books I only put down out of sheer necessity and would otherwise have happily read in one sitting this year: NOBODY BUT US by Kristin Halbrook, SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL by Trish Doller, THE ART OF WISHING by Lindsay Ribar, and THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michelle Hodkin.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU ARE LIKELY TO RE-READ IN THE COMING YEAR

UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder. I’ve already re-read it. It’s become my “I’m on the subway and I’m not in the mood for anything else on my Kindle” book.

It’s hard to separate books having an impact on me as a writer vs. as a reader, because, well, I’m very much both. I think what really impacted me this year was the discussion of Unlikeable (female) MCs, and my realization that I’d rather have characters be flawed than unbelievable. The book that really started this conversation in my brain this year was THE DISENCHANTMENTS by Nina LaCour, and HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno is the one that finished it. Incidentially, both were five-star reads for me in 2013.

The clear winner, though, for book that had the greatest impact on me as a person as OCD LOVE STORY by Corey Ann Haydu. It’s taught me what it truly means to have an anxiety disorder, and though Bea’s might be an extreme case, it’s actually pretty amazing how many times I’ve talked myself off the metaphorical ledge by remembering “That is an anxiety disorder. You do not have that. You are going to be fine.”

BOOK YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WAITED UNTIL 2013 TO FINALLY READ

I actually read almost entirely 2012-4 books this year, with the exception of trilogies that are outside my genre, so, I guess AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson, just because it’s such a me kind of premise and it came out a whole three years ago.

FAVORITE PASSAGE/QUOTE FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2013

“I respect people who get nerdy as fuck about something they love.” – UNTEACHABLE by Leah Raeder

SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2013

I’m just gonna have to guess. Shortest was probably NOBODY BUT US by Kristin Halbrook, at 292 pages, and longest was probably WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel, at 604 pages.

BOOK THAT HAD A SCENE THAT HAD ME REELING/DYING TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT

WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart could’ve been a lot worse if I weren’t in public. AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR definitely got a few tears out of me, as did KK Hendin’s HEART BREATHS. I’m sure I had some scattered through the Divergent trilogy. But I think that’s it? I hope? Maybe?

BOOK YOU READ IN 2013 THAT YOU THOUGHT GOT OVERLOOKED THIS YEAR OR WHEN IT CAME OUT

I think Laura Wiess is criminally overlooked as an author of dark contemp YA, and I continued to feel that way after reading ORDINARY BEAUTY this year. DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas is another one that got shockingly little attention for being so good, but friends and I are definitely working to change that!

BOOK BLOGGING/READING LIFE 2013

NEW FAVORITE BOOK BLOG YOU DISCOVERED IN 2013

Reader of Fictions. Hi, my name is Dahlia Adler and I’m addicted to Cover Snark. And yes, partly because the snark cracks me up, but also because it’s a great way to discover books I hadn’t previously heard of, and I love that it encompasses all different pub paths.

FAVORITE REVIEW THAT YOU WROTE IN 2013

Probably this one for HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno, because it reflects a lot on the conversation I’ve been having with myself that I referenced above.

BEST DISCUSSION YOU HAD ON YOUR BLOG

I love the comments on this post about Power and Responsibility in Kidlit. At the time, I thought people found it annoying/inflating when bloggers responded to every comment, so I didn’t, but there are a bunch of interesting things being said!

MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING REVIEW OR DISCUSSION YOU READ ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BLOG

Definitely this interview Heather of the Flyleaf Review did with Leah Raeder. It’s such a great discussion of “bad girls” in NA, sexual honesty in YA, and why even “sexed-up YA” might not be such a terrible thing.

BEST EVENT THAT YOU PARTICIPATED IN

The huge author signing at Books of Wonder that was part of Teen Author Festival. I got to meet and have books signed by Diana Peterfreund, AS King, Rainbow Rowell, Lindsay Ribar, Amy Spalding, and Nova Ren Suma, and I even got pictures with a couple of them. I also met lovely agents Sarah LaPolla and Bridget Smith. So, yeah, kinda tough to beat!

Teen Author Festival. Did not even know it was a thing. Pretty sure I owe Emily Keyes for this one!

READING CHALLENGES/GOALS

I originally set my Goodreads challenge at 75. Then when I saw I was killing it, I bumped it up to 100. Then again, 125. Now I’m past 130 and I’m just leaving it, but yes, I met it.

The other challenges I had for myself were to read five non-contemp books, which I definitely did (THE ART OF WISHING, THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER, DIVERGENT, INSURGENT, ALLEGIANT, FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE, ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD, to name a bunch), and five MG books, which, sadly, I didn’t – ALL FOUR STARS by Tara Dairman was my only one.

LOOKING AHEAD

ONE BOOK YOU DIDN’T GET TO IN 2013 THAT WILL BE A PRIORITY IN 2014

PIVOT POINT by Kasie West. I originally avoided it for being non-contemp but I’ve heard such great things and I know from THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US that I’m a fan of her writing style, so I’ll be grabbing it as soon as it comes out in paperback at the end of the month.

Re: blogging, I definitely want to blog more about the debut process, once I know a little more. I also really hope to self-publish something this year, and if I do, I’ll certainly be blogging about that!

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